The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate
the thought processes of secondary level novice programmers
engaged in computer programming for the purpose of
generating hypotheses for consideration in future research
on the relationship between computer programming and problem
solving. A high school BASIC programming course with
14 students from a single school in the tenth through the
twelfth grades was selected for the sample.
Data describing students' thought processes while programming
were collected during double periods in the 11th
and 16th weeks of the fall semester. Students worked in
role-assigned partnerships, wherein one student was the
problem solver and the other was the recorder. The problem
solver's task was to solve the problem using a "think
aloud" strategy, while the recorder took notes describing
the problem solver's actions to assure that audiotape recordings
of the problem solver's voice were maintained.
Following the solution of one problem, these roles were
switched.
Analysis of novice programmers' thought processes revealed
two categories of student problem solution strategies:
coded thinking and debugging. In the coded thinking
strategy, students approached the problems primarily
from the perspective of BASIC codes. This strategy was
similar in nature to activities involved in verbal association
learning, a low level thinking strategy identified by
Gagne (1970). Students relied on two techniques for debugging
syntax and logic errors. They applied a guess-and-check
technique to correct syntax errors or asked the
teacher for assistance. Similarly, when logic errors were
revealed, the subjects typically asked the teacher for
assistance and then used the guess-and-check technique to
correct the errors. Both techniques utilized lower level
thought processes than that required for problem solving
learning. Analysis of the subject programming processes
revealed that problem solving processes, as identified by
Polya (1988), were not involved. Future research should
examine students thought processes when working with a compiled
language such as Pascal. In addition, future research
should investigate the thought processes of students
who have had more experience than a single term of programming.
A case study of from two to three students explored
over a longer period of time may provide a clearer description
of student thought processes. / Graduation date: 1993
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/35781 |
| Date | 31 July 1992 |
| Creators | Ahmed, Aqeel M. |
| Contributors | Niess, Margaret L. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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